Rio+20 summit must listen to People’s Summit
While world leaders and the business sector gather for the Rio+20 Earth Summit due to take place here on June 20-22, Friends of the Earth International campaigners are gathering with social movements from around the world at an alternative Summit focused on human rights and environmental justice on 15-23 June.
“World leaders meeting at the Rio+20 Summit should listen to the demands of the alternative Peoples’ Summit in Rio to prove that the UN’s decision making process and our governments take into account the greater public interest before profit,” said Lucia Ortiz, Economic Justice International Program Coordinator at Friends of the Earth International.
“The Rio+20 Summit should not promote the ‘Green Economy’ agenda, which is selling out nature and people, and greenwashing an unjust and unsustainable economic system,” added Ortiz.
The People’s Summit is part of a historical process of accumulation and convergence of local, regional and global struggles. It is a space of social movements and orgnizations that will have self-organized activities, Convergence Plenaries and the People’s Assembly.
“The People and our governments must reclaim the UN’s decision making processes from corporate interests. They must prioritise real solutions that transform our economies and deliver food sovereignty, climate justice and economic justice for all,” said Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International.
“Friends of the Earth International is actively part of the Peoples Summit process and calls on world leaders to listen to the voices of the people, and to put into place peoples solutions such as agrarian reform and food sovereignty“ said Martin Drago, Friends of the Earth International Food Sovereignty program coordinator.
The Peoples Summit is a process bringing together social movements and organizations from all over the world, to call for the defense of life and commons, social and environmental justice, against commodification of nature and the ‘Green Economy’.
“ The Peoples Summit calls for mobilizations to defend the commons and the policies that defend people’s interests and rights before corporate profits,” said Isaac Rojas. “Nature is not for sale,” he added.
